Following the launch of our Energy Labels last week, CEO Robert Groves discusses how we're responding to the growing demand from sustainable businesses for the provenance of their renewable electricity supply.

We at SmartestEnergy achieved something very exciting last week - the launch of the UK’s first Energy Label for renewable electricity supply!

Hundreds of our renewable electricity customers, some of the biggest brands in the UK, received from us a label detailing the source and carbon emissions of every megawatt hour of we supplied them in the 2015/16 period.

This is because we’ve been able to provide something that sustainable businesses have been demanding for some time now.

Back in 2014, the Aldersgate Group, who represents companies with a turnover of over £400 billion, first proposed the idea of Energy Labels in their ‘Enable the Label’ report.

Since then, we’ve been developing the idea and the processes to support it, and are pleased to be the first supplier in the UK to offer this level of transparency to our customers.

We now supply over 3TWh of renewable power to businesses that by consuming renewable power, look to position themselves as sustainable companies to consumers who increasingly expect this from their preferred brands.

With the confidence provided by their label, our renewable customers will be able to communicate the provenance of the renewable electricity they consume in their businesses to their internal stakeholders and customers.

The labels can be displayed in offices or stores, shared on intranets and even published on websites and social media to help organisations tell their sustainability story.

We hope this initiative gets everyone in our industry talking more about the transparency around buying renewable power, so we can continue to drive the uptake from businesses and support the renewable generation sector.